ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The UNC Asheville men’s and women’s cross country teams will host the second Asheville Cross Country Carnival Saturday morning at Asheville Christian Academy starting at 9 a.m.

This year’s meet will feature a men’s and women’s collegiate race plus a boys and girls high school race. Colleges that are scheduled to run on Saturday include Appalachian State, Charleston Southern, Western Carolina, Wofford, Radford, Presbyterian, Gardner-Webb, Winthrop, Limestone and Lees-McRae.

High School teams include Asheville, Reynolds, Asheville Christian Academy, Veritas, Franklin, Avery County, Franklin and Trailblazers.

“We’re really excited to be hosting this meet for the second straight year,” stated Bulldog coach Jesse Norman. “We’ve got more teams this year both for the college and high school races and we’re looking forward to building this event each year.”

Norman is also happy that his teams get a chance to run in front of their fans on Saturday.

“It’s exciting that our fans will get a chance to watch us run on Saturday,” commented Norman. “We don’t get a chance to do that very often and I know everyone is pretty excited and anxious to run well.”

The Bulldog coach expects a very competitive meet Saturday morning.

“We’ve got a great field for Saturday,” declared Norman. “This is going to be a good meet for us to see where we’re at in the early part of the year. We’ll see some excellent competition.”

The Bulldogs opened the season two weekends ago at Western Carolina. The women’s team finished fourth, while the men’s squad took fifth. Senior Melanie Kulesz ran a time of 11:54.32 over the two-mile course and finished 17th. On the men’s side, freshman Dominic Collichio finished the race with a mark of 16:18.51 on the 5K course. He took 33rd.

Norman is pleased to be working with Asheville Christian Academy again.

“I can’t say enough about the staff at Asheville Christian Academy that’s helping us make this happen again,” stated Norman.

Action will start with the men’s collegiate race at 9 a.m., followed by the women’s collegiate race at 9:45. The boys’ high school race starts at 10:20 a.m., followed by the girls’ race at 11 a.m. There will be an awards ceremony at 11:45 a.m.